Electronic equipment, such as computer servers and data storage devices, is often mounted on a rack or frame using mounting members such as shelves, rails and/or brackets. Doors and panels are often added to the frames and racks, creating cabinets and enclosures, to protect the electronic equipment from the external environment and/or to provide security. As is well known, these electronic devices generate substantial heat that must be dissipated in order to maintain the devices in proper working order and prevent damage and possible failure. The addition of the doors and panels, however, exacerbates the problem of heat removal within the cabinets and enclosures.
Most electronic devices manufacturers require air of a specific temperature range to be drawn into the front of the device, passed over the internal components where the heat is exchanged, and exhausted out of the back of the device. Cabinets and enclosures, as well as the data centers or rooms that house the cabinets, are typically set up to accommodate this “front to back” air flow requirement.
Some electronic equipment, however, is designed to draw cool air in from vents or ports on one side of the device instead of the front, and then exhaust it out the other side of the device. These devices are sometimes called “side to side” breathers. Alternatively, some electronic equipment use “side to rear” cooling, where the device is designed to draw cool air in from vents on one or both sides of the device instead of the front, and then exhaust it out the rear of the device.
In practice, devices that take in cool air from one or more sides may be installed “backwards” to face the rear of the enclosure, such that they exhaust heated air to the front of the enclosure. As a result, when used in cabinets that are optimized for “front to back” cooling, these devices actually take in heated air from the back of the cabinet, due to the placement of their intake vents, and exhaust even warmer air to the front or sides of the cabinet, depending upon the particular design of the device. This configuration is not a problem if the air temperature within the enclosure remains within acceptable operating limits. However, as more powerful equipment is installed in cabinets, and as the cabinets become more densely packed with electronic equipment, the inlet temperature of the air drawn into the devices is more likely to exceed the recommended operating range of the device. The result is an upward trend in the failure of these electronic devices. Such equipment failures are more than an inconvenience, as some failures may result in interruptions to mission critical systems and communications, such as those used for example in emergency response management, aviation and flight control, process control, and finance.
In addition to the disruption to the systems and communications described above, these electronic devices themselves are expensive. While it may be possible to redesign these devices to conform to the standard “front to back” air flow configuration, this is usually an expensive and impractical undertaking, and typically not under the control of data center managers or those who install and maintain the cabinets and enclosures. Nor is it feasible to reconfigure cabinets and data centers, as the “front to back” air flow configuration is well-established, and ideal for routing and accessing cables. There is a need in the art, then, for assemblies that enable these non-“front to back” devices to intake conditioned air typically found at the front of a cabinet or enclosure and exhaust the heated air to the rear of the cabinet, regardless of the device's orientation in the enclosure or its breathing methodology.